Love Is to Be Celebrated

Happy Valentine's Day! 

I've had a love-hate relationship with this "holiday". In elementary school, I loved Valentine's Day. I remember learning how to make heart-shaped doilies and candy necklaces. Our teachers would send us home with a complete list of the names of the students in the class so that we could (realistically, so our moms could) prep "valentines" for everyone in the class. My mom would let me pick out the valentines I wanted to give out that year. There would be so many different ones to choose from - from Rugrats and Harry Potter to Winnie the Pooh and Charlie Brown.  I always looked forward to going to school that day. We would all have a paper bag with our name on it taped to the back of our chair. I liked being able to walk around the classroom to drop off my valentines into each person's bag. I liked going through my bag after and reading all my valentines. I liked it because no one was left out. 

In high school, Valentine's Day became a lot more complicated. Cute and innocent valentines didn't exist anymore. It was a time of candy grams, hormones, and anxiety. Valentine's Day was no longer a fun and light-hearted occasion. Instead, it revolved around infatuation and popularity, and was often tainted with jealousy and competition. Valentine's Day very quickly became a day that highlighted the gradual (albeit unfortunate) transition from inclusivity to exclusivity. All in all, it was stressful!

In undergrad, I hated Valentine's Day. There were no more candy grams and hormones no longer played as big of a role. I was a life science nerd at U of T and I was always busy studying. I was surrounded by hardcore pre-med students that were frighteningly ambitious. In attempts to keep up, Valentine's Day naturally became an insignificant day for me. I actually resented it. I was annoyed at the idea that there was a day dedicated to romance. Didn't people have more important things to worry about? Shouldn't people love each other everyday day? Why just this day?  Obviously, I was very opinionated ... and naive. 

Now, fast forward a bit (a lot) ... so, what do I think of Valentine's Day now? I enjoy it! I celebrate it as a day of love. Love - not just for my significant other, but just love for people, life, and myself. This Valentine's Day, I am back in Toronto. I am spending it with my family - the people who I love the most. Sameer wasn't able to come back to Toronto with me this time, but that's ok ... we celebrated early! 

Love is to be celebrated. 

It's important to celebrate love. It's what keeps people together. It's what fuels your passions. It's what defines humanity. It's what helps us persevere through a lot of hardships. And although Valentine's Day has inevitably become commercialized (like all other holidays), the concept behind it is still meaningful and sincere. It's not the day of the year where you should love or express your love more to those you care about. It's the day of the year that reminds you to celebrate, honour, and cherish the love that you already have in your life everyday. 

So What Do They Say About Salad?

I know they say you can't make friends with salad, but you totally can. Salad could never replace my best friends (i.e. mac n cheese and poutine), but we're friends. It's unfortunate that I only came to this conclusion fairly recently.

When I was articling in Toronto, there was a salad place right across from my office, right around the corner of Bay and Richmond (Sandwich Box - yes, they also makes sandwiches). I used to go there several times a week with my co-workers and we would obsess over how good the salads were. The only thing I didn't like was that my salads would come to $10-12 dollars every time. 

If you're wondering, it's one of those places where you can pick your own ingredients and the price is based on the weight of the final product. So naturally, it gets expensive because the good stuff always weighs more. 

That was my dilemma - I loved the salads there, but I hated spending that much money every time. After a bit of thought, I realized that the reason I liked going there so much was that: 

1. I could control what I wanted/didn't want to put in my salad;

2. I could control how much of everything I wanted to put in my salad; and

3. It was quick and I could easily take it back to work with me or eat it wherever I wanted.

Then I thought...

"Well if that's the reason, why am I spending the money and agonizing over it when I can just do the same thing at home?"

BECAUSE I DON'T HAVE TIME!!!

But, how long does it really take?

I already know what ingredients I like in my salad because I get the same thing every time. It's just a matter of doing groceries and getting everything that I need ahead of time (weekends are usually a good time!). If the plan is to wash and cut up veggies every morning before work to put in my salad, then yes, that would be time-consuming, inefficient, and impractical. But, if it's a matter of spending 30 minutes on a Sunday evening to wash and cut all of my veggies and cook quinoa, tofu, chicken etc. ... then it's well worth it. Meal prep, my friends. Admittedly, I initially thought "meal prepping" was just some obscure phenomenon that fitness fiends rave over. But, now I know better - it's not just for fitness fiends; it's for everyone. It's quick, efficient, and makes me feel productive and prepared for the week. And with that, I embarked on my journey and resolved to commit to meal prepping. It hasn't been easy on weekends where all I want to do is just lounge ... but then again, that's just life. And to be clear, what I'm advocating here is not that I don't enjoy eating out (because I love it!). When I don't feel like making my own salad, I still embrace the indulgence of paying for someone else to make my salad. 

I'm just saying ... 

All it takes is a little preparation and forethought 

(...and a bit of time and commitment)

... to achieve the same results yourself, as you would get elsewhere. Not just for salads!!! So, I guess that's the moral of my story.